


Should Simon Have Friend-Dumped Grace?

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Character Study, Gen, Manipulative Relationship, Mentioned Hazel, Meta, Morality, Nonfiction, Platonic Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27395545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Analyzes Grace's actions and how it affected Simon to figure out whether Simon should have friend-dumped her. Takes both moral and relational perspectives.
Relationships: Simon Laurent & Grace Monroe
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Series Abstract and "Strikes"

**Author's Note:**

> **Note: this article does not sufficiently weigh Simon’s bad behaviors in Episode 11, “The New Apex”. This article has been kept unmodified for posterity.**

_(Caveat: there’s a convincing case to be made they’re in a codependent abusive relationship, so treating this as a friendship gone bad may be the incorrect protocol or oversimplified. Still, for the sake of not re-writing the whole thing, it will be presented with the thesis they were originally close friends. Due to the difficulty of researching causes to friend-dump someone who isn’t toxic, some references come from toxic-friend protocol, so there would be some overlap.)_

# Abstract

The protagonists of Infinity Train’s third season, Grace Monroe and Simon Laurent, start off very close. However, as the season progresses, their friendship deteriorates, as clear through dialogue, but also facial expressions, body language, and vocal details. And yet, Simon chose to stay with her and obey her, if with increasing reluctance, and cared deeply about her (to him) inexplicable behavior changes. And it’s because he cared so much about Grace that he had to find out what was causing everything, leading to that shocking moment: “We….just won’t tell Simon, okay?” Later on, he shoves her off a train bridge to certain death, and briefly looks shocked and sad before he descends into maniacal laughter, and is then killed by a Ghom.

Perhaps if Simon had friend-dumped Grace earlier on, he could have avoided much of his turmoil.

# 2\. Four “Strikes”

Their relationship became massively damaged due to Grace’s four “strikes”: her distressing behavior about her number, her inexplicable (to Simon) anger at killing Tuba, never telling Simon Hazel was a denizen, and many minor forms of mistreatment, considered collectively, that only count at all due to happening so frequently and in conjunction with major “strikes”.

## Strike 1

Firstly, Grace hid her number, a mark of pride and authority in the Apex, for no clear reason. In Le Chat Chalet, they had a good interpersonal-relations moment on the stairs in which Grace disclosed “what she’s been dealing with”: her number going down. She was hiding it because she didn’t want Simon or anyone else to think less of her because of her lower number, and it’s presented as a nigh-medical problem. However, when Simon checks his number out later and tries to take off Grace’s gloves to see hers, Grace refuses, to the point of acting aggressively. Despite it being something Simon and Grace herself worried about, she didn’t seem to care about evaluating her number changes, which baffled and worried Simon to the point he went to The Cat for help. Clearly, he doesn’t believe numbers should go down, based on how he reacts to The Cat devaluing numbers and stating they should go down.

## Strike 2

Secondly, Grace became very angry at him for killing Tuba, which was rather sudden and didn’t make sense based on their opinions and tactics on Tuba from before. Indeed, he thought killing Tuba would make Grace happy.

When they first encountered Tuba in Episode 2, Grace the would “ditch” Tuba later. When in Episode 3, Simon asked Grace when they would “take out” Tuba, and Grace suggested postponing it further because Tuba would “put up a serious fight”. Grace wasn’t clear that Tuba absolutely should not be killed, and seemed to forbid attacking Tuba only because Tuba was too strong to be taken down by only one or two people.* One could argue Simon could have guessed killing Tuba would distress Hazel, but not Grace: it wouldn’t match what he knew about her beliefs and stated opinions. At first, in Episode 5, Grace is exasperated and briefly glares at him, but after realizing how badly it affected Hazel, she’s outright angry at Simon. Simon knew Hazel was crying, but beyond that, didn’t know how badly it affected Hazel.

## Strike 3

Thirdly, Grace didn’t tell Simon about being a Denizen, apparently never intended to so, and outright lied to Simon about knowing about it. Memory-Hazel even points this out, by saying: “and when you had the chance to make things right…you protected yourself! You tried to control me and Simon instead of being honest!”

This may be the strongest strike. Simon tends to react to severe stress with exasperation, aggression, or even violence (e.g., kicking a door when snowed in), but when he saw the “We…just won’t tell Simon, okay?” moment, he looks shocked and outright cries. From the way it’s on loop in Grace’s memory tape, it’s clear it was “on loop” in his own mind, too. Although Simon doesn’t immediately bring it up when he finds out, and seems to look forward to ruling the Apex with Grace without Hazel “holding them back”, when Grace says “Hazel was our friend, and you wrote her off like she was nothing!”, Simon is hurt, saying: “I was your friend first!”. Although friends do not have to disclose all their secrets to each other, and Grace had a good motive in keeping the secret, the nature and severity of this secret broke them apart.

## Strike 4

Then there’s the “fourth strike”. Disappointments and conflict are inevitable in a friendship that’s lasted eight years. Their relationship is clearly strong enough to withstand a little negativity: Simon is okay with the occasional joke at his expense (e.g., criticism of his fashion tastes and body odor) or things which make him mildly uncomfortable. (e.g., shaking him by the shoulders while telling him to “loosen up”) Some of the conflicts, disappointments, aggression or distressing behaviors would probably have been minor, quickly-healed injuries to their friendship under normal circumstances. They collectively count as one “strike” of sorts, only because they occur one after the other, in conjunction with major friendship injuries.

The weakest strikes are ones that distress Simon but fit within the context of their modus operandi, and are approached with satisfactory explanations and care for Simon. Grace decides to go by the Debutante Ball Car’s rules, instead of their typical strategy; Simon is initially uncomfortable with this, but Grace provides an explanation and splits strategies. Grace says they should stay in Le Chat Chalet for the night even though Simon is very distressed to be there, but the two explain their distressing and uncharacteristic behaviors to each other in a heartfelt conversation on the house’s stairs, which resolves things.

The stronger ones have explanations, but not convincing ones, and aren’t made with any compassion or care for Simon. In episode 6, Grace angrily tells Simon: “Don’t you ever take action like that again if I haven’t given you explicit orders!”, and Simon sounds upset when he asks if she’s pulling rank. She says yes, and Simon obeys with a drained, shocked-sounding “yes ma’am.” Grace insists on giving Hazel a funeral; Grace provides reasoning but Simon clearly finds it impractical and meaningless. (“there wasn’t a body!”)

In the worst of the minor strikes, Grace acts as the opposite of the person Simon knew, and strikes at Simon’s psychological weak points when he’s already deeply distressed. While in Grace’s memories (which Simon would never have gotten into if he were a good friend, anyway), the idealized image of the Conductor suddenly changed into something less impressive, even dorky-looking. Simon himself was mistaken about The Conductor, true, and Grace realizing the Conductor wasn’t what “he” was cracked up to be was part of her character growth, but such sudden disillusionment in someone who’s already so distressed could only cause bad consequences for Simon. (Though it is possible to flickering to what really happened wasn’t something Grace consciously did, so she can’t be blamed for it.)

* * *

*To be fair, if Grace said, “absolutely don’t kill Tuba”, would Simon have obeyed? It would have been very unlike Grace.


	2. Conclusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Note: this article does not sufficiently weigh Simon’s bad behaviors in Episode 11, “The New Apex”. This article has been kept unmodified for posterity.**

_(For the purpose of this article, “friend-dumping” will mean leaving Grace behind before The Origami Car and cutting her out of his life, whether by exiling her from The Apex or Simon leaving The Apex.)_

  
So what happens next?

There are strong arguments for and against Simon friend-dumping Grace, which can be sorted into both moral and practical reasoning.

## Yes, Simon Should Have Friend-Dumped Grace

From a moral perspective, Simon should have realized Grace was a bad friend, who wouldn’t disclose even the minimum of her feelings (post Le Chat Chalet) and had disturbing, inexplicable changes in beliefs (to Simon). Simon should have realized he couldn’t keep up a close relationship with someone who wouldn’t communicate openly and honestly with him: it would be unfair for him to put in so much care for it to not be reciprocated, and it would hurt him, too.

On a practical note, Grace disclosing her thoughts and feelings was very important for the highly cooperative nature of their relationship, as the leaders of the Apex, they had to work closely and regularly. If Grace wouldn’t disclose it, it meant she didn’t care about Simon nor the Apex as much as Simon did for Grace or the Apex; keeping Grace around would have hindered Simon’s greater goals.

## No, Simon Should Not Have Friend-Dumped Grace

On a moral perspective, Simon should not have friend-dumped Grace. Grace was dealing with major issues concerning her cherished beliefs. While lies make for bad friendships, friends do not have to disclose all their secrets to each other (even if as close as Simon and Grace). It is also wrong, in a heartlessly utilitarian way, to discard a friend because of disagreements, or because their crises of belief or method of reacting to stress is inconvenient or unwanted. Clearly, Simon is very upset by Grace shutting him out, but he doesn’t ask because Grace doesn’t want him to ask, and in that way he’s respecting her wishes. Ergo, Simon did the right thing in not demanding Grace to explain herself more and not discarding her.

On a practical note, Simon appears to have no other friends but Grace, or other sorts of close relationships (e.g., family). That there are dozens of Apex members, some at least in their mid-teens, and he still seems to have no friends but Grace may mean he is bad at making friends. Therefore, to friend-dump Grace, even if her actions are distressing, hurtful, or simply inconvenient, would leave him utterly friendless and lonely for an indefinite time. Judging by how he deals with Hazel and Tuba and how he treats the Apex when he takes over, he seems ill-suited to deal with younger people and run the Apex by himself. Salvaging his relationship with Grace would, in theory, prevent a lot of suffering.

Canonically, Simon goes with not friend-dumping Grace. Despite this seeming to be the more moral, compassionate option, he learns something deeply troubling: Grace had been hiding Hazel’s secret of being a null from him for some time, never intended to tell him, and lied about knowing about it when Hazel’s secret was exposed.

Still, what is most moral or ideal is not always practical, or best for one’s mental health. Friendships can disintegrate from irreconcilable beliefs or perspectives. Knowing their beliefs diverged so much from each other, would better interpersonal conduct (e.g., less lying) really have helped? A house divided against itself cannot stand; how could they lead the Apex with one thinking nulls are people and another thinking otherwise?

By the end, it’s clear that though they both started as bad people, Grace chose to change her ways and become better, while Simon stood by his dogmatism and became worse. Seeing Simon’s turn to dictatorial aggression and blunt orders, and Grace’s newfound compassion and thoughtfulness, it’s easy to think of Grace as “the good guy” and Simon as an unjustified “bad guy”. But…they’re not. As Memory-Hazel points out, she lied to Simon, and Grace’s cowardice and lying led to both Simon and Hazel suffering and leaving her. Under the particular circumstances of bringing along and getting to know Hazel, Simon’s and Grace’s personalities, values, and ways of relating to each other would inevitably change and clash. Whether the relationship can be fixed isn’t up to Simon. Short of big tweaks to canon events, their relationship would inevitably worsen.

**Author's Note:**

> The author enjoys comments. Feel free to comment, either here or on the author's [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/).


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